In today’s installment of the RGT video rock guitar lesson series, you will learn how to play an excerpt from the RGT Rock Initial Exam Track – ‘Firecracker.’
When taking the RGT Rock Initial Guitar Exam, you will be asked to perform two rock tracks from the RGT Initial Stage handbook, one of your choices could be ‘Firecracker.’
The first section of the piece is based on a repetitive riff that uses only the first few notes of A natural minor scale.
Alternating between downstrokes and upstrokes with your pick will make this easier to play.
The second section starts with some chords – A minor and E minor. Strum each of these chords quite slowly and try to let the notes ring out for a full bar.
After the chords, a short descending lick ends this extract of the piece
Listen to the video and audio tracks below in order to hear how ‘Firecracker’ should be played on the guitar.
You can also click here to purchase the RGT Initial Stage Rock Exam book, which contains the full music to ‘Firecracker,’ as well as all of the other musical requirements for this exam.
To view more articles in this series, please visit the “RGT Rock Guitar Video Lessons Archive.”
RGT Firecracker Lesson – Practice Tip
To help get you begin learning this song, here is a quick tip on how to navigate ‘Firecracker.’
“Before attempting this piece, spend some time just practising the first four notes until you can play them very fluently – as this short riff repeats many times during the piece. In bars 5 and 6 make sure you observe the ‘rest’ in the music, by touching the strings to silence them after playing E5.”
RGT Firecracker Lesson – Audio
Besides learning how to play ‘Firecracker’ from the video lesson below, here are two audio tracks that you can use when working on this track during your practice routine.
It would be a good idea to start by practicing with the full track for ‘Firecracker’ first, so that you learn how to play along in time with the recorded guitar track.
After that, the next practice goal you should aim for would be to jam along with only the backing track for ‘Firecracker,’ allowing you to perform the song without the help of the guide guitar track.
Here are both of those audio tracks for ‘Firecracker’ to jam along with when learning how to play this song in your practice routine.
Click to listen to the full backing track for the RGT song ‘Firecracker.’
Click to listen to the backing track for the RGT song ‘Firecracker.’
RGT Firecracker Lesson -Video
Video presented by Chris Bird, Music Editor of Total Guitar Magazine
RGT Rock Guitar Initial Books
To find out more about ‘Firecracker,’ and the rest of the RGT Rock Initial Exam requirements, please download the RGT Rock Guitar Exam Information Booklet.
You can also check out the Rock Guitar Initial Exam Book, which comes with a CD and contains notation for each of the exam pieces, as well as diagrams for the chords and scales that these pieces are based upon.
Not a Registered RGT Teacher yet? Visit the Join the RGT Page to find out the great benefits that membership has to offer.